Summer camps

This is the first summer that we have had to find summer camps for FABJ to attend.  She finished preschool, called junior infants, at the end of June, and kindergarten (i.e. senior infants) starts at the end of August.  In the U.S., we would have planned to send her to the daycare (which offers aftercare / summer care for preschool kids).  Here in Ireland, however, we had no plan.

We noticed signs for “Camp Blackrock” shortly after arriving here.  I called up, and they had availability in her age group.  So she spent 3 of the 4 weeks in July there.  It was good value, although the young kids (4-6) have a fairly boring schedule aside from swimming for a bit in the early afternoon.  FABJ loved swimming, so she had a great time at the camp.  The swimming was a hit in large part because she normally is in the pool for swimming lessons.  She does not like following instructions, so she does not like swimming lessons.

Given her flair for drama (and the nickname DQ), we enrolled her in drama camp nearby for one week in July.  It finished at 1 each day (unlike 4pm for Camp Blackrock), but it was very close.  She seemed to enjoy that, too, especially since her cousin (who lives just down the road) was also enrolled at the camp.  Her grandparents and I attended the final performance at the end of the week.  She did well but I was hoping for more drama.  Instead, they recite a very short story, sing a song, and dance to another song.

FABJ at drama camp

For August, she is attending the UCD sports camp, which has the convenience (and inconvenience) of being located where I work.  It takes forever when we take the bus (but is an easy and pleasant bike ride), so I’m hoping for good weather the rest of the month.  Anyway, she quite enjoys it, and she’s tired in the evenings.  So far, some of the sports she’s tried include: lacrosse, kickboxing, yoga, volleyball, climbing, bouncy house (did not know this was a sport!), trampoline-ing, soccer, hockey, and athletics (which appear to be games).  She seems to enjoy pretty much all of them.  Here she is on the rock climbing wall – she got as high as 8 or so feet (not bad for an almost five year old).  A few days later, she climbed to the top (over 20 feet up) twice.  The student assistant was quite impressed with that feat, and FABJ was also very excited.  She certainly has the build for rock climbing.

FABJ on the UCD climbing wall

Overall, she seems pretty happy with camp.  Her biggest complaint appears to be transportation to and from camp, as I don’t drive her there (more on driving in a future blog entry).  In future summers, we hope to spend some of the time on holidays.  But with LBJ in a new job and no reimbursement on moving expenses, our only holiday was a long weekend over a bank holiday (i.e. a day that LBJ got off from work, like Labor Day in the U.S.).  Paid days off from work tend to be bank holidays, what seem like random days off, rather than holidays with names like Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.

Cute photo of ORBJ - looks like her mum